1935 Yankee Storm One Of The Goofiest

The last November hurricane to strike the U.S. mainland was the Yankee Storm of 1935, one of the goofiest on the books.

Yankee?

Instead of forming in the tropics and heading north like most self- respecting storms, this freak sprang to life in cool Atlantic waters hundreds of miles north of Florida and split for the tropics.

On Nov. 2 it was chugging south-southwest 300 miles off the coast of Florida. The Bahamas buttoned up.

On Nov. 3, the Palm Beach Post-Times got even with northern publications that for years wrote about ''Florida hurricanes.'' The Post-Times named this bizarre runaway the ''Yankee Storm.''

The storm changed course and on Nov. 4 blasted South Florida and moved into the Gulf near Cape Sable. It began looping westward and back toward Florida, inspiring one writer to call it ''this mad November hurricane.''

As it approached the eastern Panhandle, another writer called it ''this weirdest of all tropical wind terrors.'' Then the hurricane fizzled.